SSsssoooofffFFFFFTTTTtttteeeee goodness....

i can't stop thinking about ice cream. i don't think it's related to my pregnancy either.

the other day, i was somewhere, possibly the zoo or the museum with kidzilla and i heard it. the familiar music box melody of an ice cream truck. i imagined it's white square shape ambling up the street, just about to round a corner where it would be patiently waiting for me and my dollar clenched in my veiny, outstretched and vibrating fist. the song "how much is that doggie in the window" would waft toward me and envelop me in its summery embrace.

but alas, it was a f*cking ringtone on someone's stupid cell phone.

for some reason, weeks into the official summer of '05 (you know it's official when someone visits an ER with a serious burn or loss of digits/limbs due to an illegal firework purchased in indiana before the 4th) here in this south side chicago neighborhood, the ice cream trucks are noticeably absent. i say/know this because elsewhere in the country ice cream trucks are so obvious, they're driving people to litigate - ice cream vendor's music sparks outcry.

i mean what DOES an ice cream fanatic have to do to get a cheap vanilla softee delivered to her by a surly man in a beatup white truck!? do i really have to buy said white truck and do this myself?! i can't even get a paleta guy here with the bells and the whistles and the coconut paletas with the sticky papers...

as a kid, my old northside neighborhood was frequented by parades of paleta guys and ice cream trucks. in the event that we missed a parade, the baskin robbins down the street that had the cool bubble gum ice cream that my mother would never let me have. in fact, i think i was only allowed the green orange and white sherbet. there i was halfheartedly licking my sherbet plain cone next to my friends and their triple scooped sensations drip, drip, dripping seductively down their monstrous waffle cones and soiling the tops of their roller skates.

if we were really good, we'd get to go to zephyrs or to margie's candies. both establishments offered a vast array of ice cream treats and a large party bowl of ice creams - usually a thirty plus scoop fantasy that you could share with a handful of candied friends.

despite the lack of mobile ice cream vendors, i do have some choices nearby. there's the original rainbow cone shop which has been a fixture in the community for almost 80 years. they feature their own rainbow ice cream - a rainbow ribboned mixture of chocolate, strawberry, palmer house and pistachio ice cream and orange sherbet. a small cone will set you back $2.50 and they're open until 11 p.m.

a new coldstone creamery just opened down the street. i like all their creative little mixes, but the singing is a little too loud and kinda annoying. i know in this neighborhood something like two hundred teens auditioned for the thirty or so positions. it was like our own mini american idol but who wants that really? a small "like it" will set you back $3 and some change but they're also open until 11 p.m. and you smell SO GOOD when you leave.... my two faves "paradise found" and "birthday remix"

hopefully, the oberweis that's being built will be open before summer ends.
oberweis ice cream ROCKS. oberweis politics SUCKS.

ok, must go inhale some ice cream now...